


Fatherhood

by inky_dreams



Series: What is family? [8]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010), Deathstroke the Terminator (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Deathstroke more like dadstroke, Female Jason Todd, Gen, Good Parent Slade Wilson, Good Parent Talia al Ghul, Not Canon Compliant, Protective Slade Wilson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-15 14:07:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29809560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inky_dreams/pseuds/inky_dreams
Summary: Slade will admit he hasn't been the best father in the past. He's either been absent for a lot of their childhood or outright missed it. He's making efforts to improve, and he'd like to say that he's gone a long way from where he first started.But what is he to do when his daughters are de-aged? After all, he doesn't have much experience in that area.
Relationships: Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Jason Todd & Rose Wilson, Jason Todd & Slade Wilson, Joseph Wilson & Rose Wilson & Slade Wilson, Talia al Ghul/Slade Wilson
Series: What is family? [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2115303
Comments: 5
Kudos: 21





	Fatherhood

**Author's Note:**

> Slade faces his biggest challenge yet...convincing his daughters that he isn't a threat.

Slade was alarmed, never had any of his kids hit the emergency beacon that he gave to them. The moment it had alerted him, he had rushed out the door. Even though he had taken the fastest possible jet, he was still 6 hours away from them.

_God, could the plane not go any faster? What had happened to them?_

_All that he knew was that Medea had decided to use her up her vacation days and join Rose on another trip around Europe._

He wasn’t religious, but he was praying to whatever deity was up there that his children were safe. Otherwise, the offending party would have _hell_ to pay.

The coordinates had led him to a warehouse. Some corpses of guards were littered outside, keeping him cautious. When he broke in he had found some guards lingering about, those had been quickly dispatched. From what he understood, they had been searching around for two intruders. 

His heart stopped briefly when he saw pieces of familiar armour and weapons in a pile. He’d almost stopped, but he pushed on. Time was of the essence, he wouldn’t waste it when the kids were in trouble. 

Turning the corner, he easily evades the pair of knives toward him from opposite directions. The knives miss their mark and loudly clatter onto the ground, giving him the opportunity to grab one of the offenders. To his shock, the offenders are no other than two kids. Kids who look suspiciously like his daughters, if Rose was about 10 years old and Medea was about 8 years old.

“Let me go, you weirdo.” cries the younger one. Medea twists in his grip, trying to get out of his hold.

“Yeah, let my friend go.” Rose aims a kick at him.

In his shock, he lets Medea go. Before the kids attempt to flee, he pulls off his mask. Becoming well aware that they didn’t recognize him. Whatever had happened here had not only de-aged them but also gave them the memories they had at that age. Which meant, neither of them would trust him easily.

“Wait, wait” Slade placates, “I’m here to rescue the two of you.”

“Yeah right, Willis wouldn't care if I was missing..." Medea glares at him suspiciously, "who are you?"

“Yeah, prove it,” adds Rose, “Who sent you?”

“Nobody did. I came by myself. And my name is Slade Wilson.”

“Aren’t you also Deathstroke?” questions Rose.

Medea’s eyes widen in fear “Deathstroke? Don’t you kill people?”

“Yes, but only to those that deserve it.” Slade backtracks, sensing that any misstep could cause them to run away. “And killing isn’t the only thing I get hired to do.” 

Medea makes a noise of disbelief. "Sure thing, _Deathstroke."_

“So why are you here?” questions Rose, “Also, are you really my dad?”

Slade chokes, “Y-yes. How did you know?”

His mind is reeling from the questions. How _did she know? She hadn't sought him out till years later... had she known who he was her whole life? Then...did she ever think he just abandoned her?_

He snaps back to attention when Rose answers, “Easy, mom told me. Well technically she told this other man but I was hiding in the other room, so I heard it too. Did she send you here?”

“Err… not exactly.” _Crap… what does he say now? Lilian is dead, but he can’t exactly say that either. Think Slade, think._ “I came because I wanted to meet you.”

“Hmmm” muses Rose, pondering over his answer.

“Listen, we should leave as soon as possible." he says, breaking Rose out of her thoughts. "The guys patrolling are gone now, but there is no guarantee that they won’t have backup coming to check-in.”

“How do we know that you aren’t working for them? You could be a liar for all we know?” points out Medea. 

“You don’t.” Medea frowns at his answer. _Great job, Slade. Make the kids distrust you, check._ “But are you willing to risk that?”

“I don’t trust you at all,” Medea argues.

“Look, kid. You don’t have many options left. It’s snowing outside, you could try to leave by yourself, but I can guarantee that you won't survive for long out there. You don't have any supplies or a map. Where are you going to go?”

Medea glares at him. 

_What had she gone through making her so distrustful at such a young age?_

“You could be a perverted old man or a child trafficker,” declares Medea.

Slade chokes for the second time that day, “I’m getting you, kids, out of here whether you like it or not. I’ll drag you to the jet if I have to. Look... I’ll even let you hold on to that knife if that makes you feel safer.” 

He picks the knife off the ground and offers it to her, handle toward her. Medea instantly snatches the knife back. 

“Fine. But no funny moves, old man.”

Rose finally speaks up again, “It’s fine, I think we can trust him. Mom said that he is a man of his word. Whatever that means. Besides we can stab him with the knife if he does anything sketchy.”

  
  


_Oh boy. He's going to be in for a long plane ride._

* * *

They end up landing at Nanda Parbat without out anymore trouble. After notifying Ra’s and Talia of the situation, they had requested him to bring them back to Nanda Parbat. He accepted, especially since the League had a larger number of resources than he did. Hopefully there were no detrimental side effects to their sudden age change. 

When they had disembarked, Talia and Ra’s had met up with them by the landing dock, with Damian nearby.

Convincing the girls to stay in Nanda Parbat was hard. He had to come up with an excuse to Rose about why she couldn’t go back to her mom. He managed one, but she had looked a little skeptical at his answer. Medea was… much harder to convince.

At this point, she was convinced that her parents had sold her to a ‘creepy cult’ of sorts and the League was going to murder her. , Ra’s had been met with similar wariness as he had, she'd even accused Ra's of being a creepy cult leader. Ra's took her attitude in stride, looking more amused than Slade had ever seen the man. Only Talia had been able to convince her that she was safe.

Other than Talia and Rose, Medea seemed wary of anybody that approached her. Especially males. Not even Damian was considered trustworthy.

The two girls had bonded quickly during the flight, which wasn’t surprising to him based on how close they were before they were de-aged. Rose had decided to step into her ‘newfound’ role as a big sister, protecting her little sister from whatever she was wary about. Unfortunately for him, he was stuck in that category.

_Slade was not envious._

_How did Ra’s and Damian manage to get Medea to trust them so quickly? Here he was struggling and there they were with her trust._

Ra’s had soon won her over the moment he let her look through his personal library. Damian struggled a bit more, finding it strange that he was now the older sibling and how distrustful she was. It took a few days, but they eventually bonded over stories and Damian’s love for animals. 

Another thing that irked him was how easily both his girls had also been won over by Shiva. All she had to do was take down a couple of trainees while she was sparring and they instantly adored her. Now the two of them would sometimes _secretly_ follow Shiva around in awe. Shiva took their behaviour in stride, letting them follow along, pretending that she didn't notice her giggling shadows.

_It wasn’t fair._

* * *

It was still a rather weird situation seeing his daughters so young. He hadn’t met Rose until she was practically a teenager and he’d only been properly introduced to Medea after her resurrection. 

He tried to bond with them, viewing it as a second chance at what he missed out on. But as Joey liked to call it, he was an ‘awkward dad’. Fortunately for him, Rose hadn’t minded his awkwardness too much. She had been much easier to convince that he wasn’t going to hurt them. Medea, on the other hand, was different. She was still wary of his every action. He attempted to convince her otherwise, but it seems that she was set in her decision. 

And even though Rose was opening up to him, there was still a difference in how she acted around him. He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but he misses having them around, always tagging along whether he wanted them to or not. He hadn’t realized how quiet it was without the two of them hanging around him. 

* * *

“We have a possible lead.” says Talia “The League has a contact that specializes in time magic.”

“I’m sensing a catch here, what is it?”

“She is rather _eccentric_. People have to come to her for their requests, the League isn’t an exception to her rules.”

“ _Tch._ So where can we find her?”

“She tends to move around a lot. She was last sighted in Cannes. We need your help to look for her. She’s rather good at hiding when she doesn’t want to be found.”

“I see... I guess we have to take a trip to Cannes then.”

After the meeting had ended, he had headed back to his quarters. Taking a lesser-known shortcut, he pauses when he overhears two familiar voices. Looking around he locates the source of the sound just to see the two attempting to climb up onto a rather old rooftop. 

He had stopped to watch whether the two would need any help.

_Getting up was the easy part, getting down would be harder._

“Come on, nobody is going to ever think to look for us here.”

“True…" Medea agrees, albeit rather hesitantly, "the courtyard does look abandoned.”

“I told you so.”

“Medea?” asks Rose.

“Yeah?”

“Why don’t you trust dad?”

“...” 

“I get that he looks pretty scary, but I can guarantee he’s a softie.” Rose giggles at the end “Oh, don’t put your foot on that brick, Medea. It’s a little loose.”

Medea lets out a cry when she heeds the warning a little too late. 

Slade’s heart practically stops as he watches Medea almost fall.

Luckily she regains her balance.

“You ok?”

“M’fine. Maybe you should have started with the warning.”

“Oops.”

“There’s another loose brick above your right hand. Careful.”

“Ok.”

By the time they’ve gotten up onto the roof, Slade has already had multiple panic attacks at their near misses. _Did they not have any survival instincts?_ He had gotten closer to keep an eye out on them and hid in the shadows. If anyone was passing by, they would probably have laughed at how ridiculous he looked.

The two girls finally settle down on the roof, swinging the legs off the ledge. If he wasn’t trying so hard to stay hidden, he would have forced them to get away from the building. Especially since it looks as if it is a moment’s away from collapsing.

“So? You never answered my question.”

“Hmmm” Medea hesitates “He might be your dad, but he has no reason to keep me safe. I’m just another street rat from Crime Alley. Why would he care about me?”

_Oh, Medea… but she wouldn’t believe him if he told her the truth._

“I don’t know about that. He’s promised that he would get us out and not harm us. So far he’s kept his promises.”

“What if he breaks his promise?”

“You are so negative. Give him a chance, maybe he won’t.”

“And if he does?”

“I'll be on your side.”

“... Ok, he gets another chance. Only one though.”

He feels that he is intruding on a private moment. As he leaves his spot to head back to his quarters, he hears someone run after him. He startles when he hears Rose call out for him.

_Had he been spotted?_

Thankfully Rose doesn’t comment on it, rather she looks relieved to see someone.

“Dad, dad!” Rose huffs “wait thank god you’re here.”

“What is it?”

“Umm… can you help with something? We were climbing the roofs and uhh… one of the bricks might have fallen off.”

_What?_

_“_ And Medea is kinda… stuck?”

_Oh god. Of course, they would get stuck getting down._

Rose and he started heading back toward the courtyard. 

“Rose! Hurry up. I can’t hold on that much longer” says Medea hanging from the building ledge. 

At that, Slade sprints back to the courtyard. When he gets there he sees Medea gripping onto some ledges, but the foothold is clearly crumbling away. She’s too high up to jump safely.

“Kid, you are going to have to jump.”

“What? No way, I’ll break a leg.”

“You won’t, I’ll catch you. Just jump.”

“Promise?” 

“Yes”, he gestures for her to jump.

He manages to catch her before putting her back on the ground. 

_You know, when he said that he missed the antics that they got up to, he wasn’t exactly telling the Universe to step in and give it to him._

“You caught me?”

“Yeah kid, I told you I’d keep my promises.”

“Thanks” she mutters looking down at her shoes.

When she looks up again, he sees that the wariness in her eyes has diminished a little.

He wishes she would trust him more, but he’ll take what he can get. 

_After all progress was progress, no matter how small it was, right?_

* * *

The trip to Cannes turned out to be a bust. By the time they arrived, he was unable to find any trace of the woman. He went around trying to get information from the locals, but it seemed like she had disappeared into thin air.

The only plus side of the trip was seeing the kids have fun. While he had been tracking down the mage, Talia had taken the girls and Damian out to explore. Talia had sent him photos of the kids. They must have had fun since Rose and Medea were eagerly recounting every detail to him. 

Another lead had soon popped up regarding the mage. Looks like they had to head to L.A.. He really hopes that this won’t be another bust. For some reason, the leads seem to indicate that the mage frequented... Disneyland? While he was discussing the information’s validity with Talia, the girls had overheard him mention Disneyland. They may or may not have convinced him to bring them along.

So here he was, at Disneyland with all of them. Joey had even tagged along, saying he wanted to help Slade out. Though he suspected it was mainly because Joey wanted photos to use as blackmail in the future. Just like their previous trip, Talia and Damian had come along too. 

The moment they arrived, Rose and Medea’s eyes had widened. They had wanted to try out everything. From the rides that they were too short for to almost every food that was offered. He had barely managed to talk them down from heading toward the Tower of Terror. With how short they currently were, they would likely fly out of the seats.

Since he wanted to keep an eye out for the mage, he hadn’t gone on most of the rides. Thus he had ended up being the designated ‘coat stand’. Letting the rest of them have their fun. This also made him the designated photographer. Though he did appear in a few photos too. 

Between all that, he managed to find time to track down the mage, extracting a promise that she would show up to help age the girls back. At first, the mage had offered to do the change immediately. But he had pushed it back to the next day. Everyone had been having so much fun, he didn’t want to spoil it for them. A couple more hours wouldn’t hurt anyone.

When he had returned with the news, Talia agreed with his decision and said that it was more convenient to meet tomorrow anyways. 

With that out of the way, Slade felt a significant amount of tension disappear. Letting the kids drag him to various souvenir shops and rides. The kids wanted to go over there? Sure, why not. Try that food? Ok, done. Shown interest in a toy or accessory? It was bought. Joey had laughed at his inability to say no. 

In hindsight _maybe_ he went overboard. Once they were returned to proper ages, he’s not sure whether they will keep all the trinkets he’s bought for them today. 

_Oh well, it’s not like he doesn’t have the money to spare. With the amount he’s spent, it’ll be good for the economy. Or whatever._

Slade glances over at the children; Joey and Damian had gone off to view the gallery, while Rose and Medea had gone to get ice cream from the vendor across from the park benches Talia and him were at. It was rather busy for a weekday, but he could see Rose pushing her way back toward them. 

_Wait- did they just lose a child?_

Talia and him exchange glances of horror, getting up to meet Rose halfway.

“Rose? Did you see where your sister went off to?”

“She-” Rose glances behind her “was right behind me a minute-”

_Oh god. They just lost a child._

“Let me go you creep!” _Was that Medea’s voice?_

“Wait- just listen-”

Slade narrows his eye at the voices, the other voice was a familiar one. But a nuisance. Hopefully, the rest isn’t here today.

With his intimidating size and aura that he was giving off, he navigates the crowd rather easily. The crowd disperses around him, giving him room to move past while allowing Talia and Rose to follow behind with no difficulties.

“Someone help, this strange man is trying to kidnap me!”

“I- I wait-no, it’s all just a misunderstanding. My sister-”

“Pervert!”

The other voice sputters trying to piece together a response, as members of the crowd titter at the exclamation.

“Dad!” 

_Dad? She hadn’t called him that since she was de-aged, were her memories-_

_Stay focused, Slade._

Medea runs straight toward him, grabbing onto him and pointing. “He keeps trying to get me to go with him.”

Slade glares in the direction that she points at before glancing back at her. “Are you hurt anywhere? Did he touch you?”

Medea shakes her head, there’s a spark of mischief in her eyes. She whispers “I only yelled that so he would let go. Too many people were glaring at him for him to drag me away.”

_Pffft, golden boy being accused of being a pervert._

Talia approaches the offender. “Richard, I had no idea you were here.”

“Talia? I could say the same about you. I didn’t know that recruitment started at such an early age.”

“Have you forgotten your warning?”

“What are you doing here? Aren't emotions beneath the League?”

“I’m here with my Beloved and our children.”  
“Be-Beloved?” Dick stammers “B-but Bruce…” He catches sight of Slade and pales. “You mean to say that…”

“Well I’m glad that you can understand English, Grayson” Slade comments dryly as he moves to stand beside Talia. Medea is by his side glaring at Grayson. 

“What have you done to her?”

“Really, shouldn’t I be asking you the same thing? Why were you trying to separate my daughter from her family?” 

The crowd titters at the accusation. Reminding everyone of the curious crowd forming around them. But before either of them can say anything else, Rose darts out from behind Talia and lands a hard kick to Dick’s shin.

“Ouch!”

“That’s for hurting my sister!” Thankfully Talia stops Rose from going back to land another kick.

“I think it would be best if you leave, Richard. You’re making a scene.”

Dick glares, but he doesn’t refute the point. Acknowledging that he is outnumbered, he turns and blends back into the crowd.

As the crowd begins to disperse behind them, Slade turns back to the duo and says “Alright brats, I think we’ve had enough excitement for today. Why don't we call it a day?”

“I agree, we should head back once the boys return,” responds Talia.

* * *

**Epilogue:**

“My memories are all over the place. I have memories of going to Disneyland. But I know that Willis never took me… And...me calling dad a weirdo to his face?”

Joey signs “You also called pops a child trafficker, amongst other things. I think my favourite was 'perverted old man'.”

“What?” Medea hides her face in her hands, “This is so awkward.”

Medea quickly moves out of Slade’s line of sight, “Hi dad, thanks for saving us, bye dad” and scurries her way over to Talia and Damian.

Slade chuckles at how red Medea looks. 

Rose is equally as confused, “Same here. My memories are a little hazy. Did we actually try to stab dad with a tiny switchblade?”

“Yeah, but you were so adorable. Look, I’ve also got so many photos of mini you and Medea. The ones at Disneyland are the best yet.” 

“Joey!!!” With that Rose runs after Joey, trying to confiscate his phone.

“Rose! Joey, don’t provoke your sister.” Slade scolds them. “And Joey, you’re not the only one with photos either. I’ve got some good ones with you in it.”

“What? Let me see dad.” Rose loses interest in chasing Joey and immediately bounds over to him.

Slade laughs as he dodges Joey’s attempts to snatch his phone from him. 

“Ukht, I’m glad you are back to your proper age. Never do that again.”

“Huh? Sure.” Medea lets Damian pull her into a hug. “Wait, if that was real. Does that also mean I called Grandfather … a cre-creepy cult leader? Oh no, please tell me that was a dream.”

Talia chuckles “Don’t worry, Father wasn’t insulted. I’d wager that he was more amused than anything else.”

Medea groans “Oh my god. How can I face him again?”

“Well I’m sure you can think of something, Grandfather is coming by later today.” quips Damian.

Medea pales in response. “I’m so screwed…”


End file.
